1 Million Archive

The odds that John Biggs will take home an iPhone 4 today? I think you'll find that France has a better chance of winning the World Cup this year. The odds that Apple will sell more than 1 million iPhone 4s today? Well, according to Bookmaker.com, you're looking at 50/50. Presumably these odds that into account that fact that the Apple hardware isn't as robust as you'd like to see!

If I've said it once I've said it 1,000 times: the best way to stay safe online is to keep your wits about you and not to venture off into the darker corners of the Internet, if you know what I mean. I bring this up because there's a nasty bit of kit out there that means to attack unsuspecting Mac users. It sorta makes sense from the malware creator's perspective: Mac users tend to operate under the assumption that they're immune from malware because A) their numbers are too few to be a juicy target B) their system is inherently more secure. You can debate point B all day long, but as Apple sells more and more Macs you can bet that miscreants will be targeting the platform with increasing frequency.

French software firm Abaxia has made a name for itself create white-label modules that help carriers brand phones -- its two flagship products are search and active home screen apps (pictured) -- so the fact that HTC has shelled out €11 million (about $13.1 million) for the company this week should offer you a solid clue where this is all headed. Naturally, HTC isn't talking about exactly how Abaxia will fit into the big picture, but boss Peter Chou says that the acquisition will "deepen and broaden [their] software development capabilities so that [they] can innovate at an even faster pace." Software value-add is becoming even more important for phone manufacturers these days as hardware all converges on a fairly standard full-touch prototype that doesn't offer much opportunity for differentiation -- even as Microsoft is putting the kibosh on serious customization in Windows Phone 7 -- so it'll be interesting to see how this ultimately affects HTC's products, particularly those with carriers' logos silkscreened around back. Follow the break for HTC's full release.